Science as Inquiry - Content Standard A: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop
Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Understandings about scientific inquiry
What the standard means...
- Students should develop sophistication in their abilities and understanding of scientific inquiry. Necessary abilities include:
Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations
Use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications
Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence
Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models
- Students reflect on the concepts that guide inquiry. These concepts include:
Scientists usually inquire about how physical, living, or designed systems function. Conceptual principles and knowledge guide scientific inquiries.
Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons.
Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data.
Scientific explanations must adhere to criteria such as: a proposed explanation must be logically consistent; it must abide by the rules of evidence; it must be open to questions and possible modification; and it must be based on historical and current scientific knowledge.
Results of scientific inquiry--new knowledge and methods--emerge from different types of investigations and public communication among scientists.
What students need to know (prior knowledge)...
- Experiments are guided by concepts and are performed to test ideas.
- The components of the scientific method.
- Hypotheses are written in an "If, then, because" statement.
Some common misconceptions...
- Students may have trouble with variables and controlled experiments.
- Students may have trouble dealing with data that deviates from what is standard, normal or expected, and as a result have difficulty proposing explanations based on the evidence and logic rather than on their prior beliefs about the natural world.
Life Science - Content Standard C: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of
Biological Evolution (This is the only subtopic, out of the six subtopics under this standard, that applies to the unit.)
What the standard means...
- Students need to understand that species evolve over time, and evolution is the consequence of the following interactions:
the potential for a species to increase its numbers
the genetics variability of offspring due to mutation and recombination of genes
a finite supply of the resources required for life
the ensuing selection by the environment of those offspring better able to survive and leave offspring.
- Students need to understand that the great diversity of organisms is the result of more than 3.5 billion years of evolution that has filled every available niche with life forms.
- Students need to understand that natural selection and its evolutionary consequences provide a scientific explanation for the fossil record of ancient life forms, as well as for the striking molecular similarities observed among the diverse species of living organisms.
- Students need to understand that the millions of different species of plants, animals, and microorganisms that live on earth today are related by descent from common ancestors.
What students need to know (prior knowledge)...
- Some concept of the Big Bang theory.
- Reproduction and heredity.
- Concepts in genetics including phenotypes, genotypes, alleles, offspring, and frequencies.
- Populations and ecosystems.
- Diversity and adaptations of organisms.
Some common misconceptions...
- Students will exhibit a general understanding of classification, but some may appeal to "everyday" classifications when presented with a unique organisms, such as viewing a jellyfish a fish because of the term "fish," and penguins as amphibians because they live on land and in water.
- Students may attribute new variations to an organism's needs, environmental conditions, or use.
- Students may view population change as all individuals in the population changing, opposed to population change as a result of differential reproduction.
- Students may view a mutation as modifying an individual's own form during its life rather than only its germ cells and offspring.
Earth and Space Science - Content Standard D: As a result of grades 9-12, all students should develop an understanding of
Origin and evolution of the earth system (This is the only subtopic, out of the four subtopics under this standard, that applies to the unit.)
What the standard means...
- Students need to understand that geologic time can be estimated by observing rock sequences and using fossils to correlatre the sequence at various locations.
- Students need to understand that the time since a rock was formed ca be determined by current methods using the known decay rates of radioactive isotopes present in rocks.
What students need to know (prior knowledge)...
- Structure of the earth system.
- Earth's history.
- Formation of fossils in rocks.
Some common misconceptions...
- Students view the Earth as always being as it is now, or that any changes that have occurred must have been sudden and comprehensive.
- Students have difficulties comprehending the magnitude of large numbers like a billion.
- Students have difficulties understanding the immensity of the geologic scale and its importance.
Relevant National Standards
Science as Inquiry - Content Standard A: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop
What the standard means...
- Students should develop sophistication in their abilities and understanding of scientific inquiry. Necessary abilities include:
- Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations
- Use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications
- Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence
- Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models
- Students reflect on the concepts that guide inquiry. These concepts include:What students need to know (prior knowledge)...
- Experiments are guided by concepts and are performed to test ideas.
- The components of the scientific method.
- Hypotheses are written in an "If, then, because" statement.
Some common misconceptions...
- Students may have trouble with variables and controlled experiments.
- Students may have trouble dealing with data that deviates from what is standard, normal or expected, and as a result have difficulty proposing explanations based on the evidence and logic rather than on their prior beliefs about the natural world.
Life Science - Content Standard C: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of
What the standard means...
- Students need to understand that species evolve over time, and evolution is the consequence of the following interactions:
- the potential for a species to increase its numbers
- the genetics variability of offspring due to mutation and recombination of genes
- a finite supply of the resources required for life
- the ensuing selection by the environment of those offspring better able to survive and leave offspring.
- Students need to understand that the great diversity of organisms is the result of more than 3.5 billion years of evolution that has filled every available niche with life forms.- Students need to understand that natural selection and its evolutionary consequences provide a scientific explanation for the fossil record of ancient life forms, as well as for the striking molecular similarities observed among the diverse species of living organisms.
- Students need to understand that the millions of different species of plants, animals, and microorganisms that live on earth today are related by descent from common ancestors.
What students need to know (prior knowledge)...
- Some concept of the Big Bang theory.
- Reproduction and heredity.
- Concepts in genetics including phenotypes, genotypes, alleles, offspring, and frequencies.
- Populations and ecosystems.
- Diversity and adaptations of organisms.
Some common misconceptions...
- Students will exhibit a general understanding of classification, but some may appeal to "everyday" classifications when presented with a unique organisms, such as viewing a jellyfish a fish because of the term "fish," and penguins as amphibians because they live on land and in water.
- Students may attribute new variations to an organism's needs, environmental conditions, or use.
- Students may view population change as all individuals in the population changing, opposed to population change as a result of differential reproduction.
- Students may view a mutation as modifying an individual's own form during its life rather than only its germ cells and offspring.
Earth and Space Science - Content Standard D: As a result of grades 9-12, all students should develop an understanding of
What the standard means...
- Students need to understand that geologic time can be estimated by observing rock sequences and using fossils to correlatre the sequence at various locations.
- Students need to understand that the time since a rock was formed ca be determined by current methods using the known decay rates of radioactive isotopes present in rocks.
What students need to know (prior knowledge)...
- Structure of the earth system.
- Earth's history.
- Formation of fossils in rocks.
Some common misconceptions...
- Students view the Earth as always being as it is now, or that any changes that have occurred must have been sudden and comprehensive.
- Students have difficulties comprehending the magnitude of large numbers like a billion.
- Students have difficulties understanding the immensity of the geologic scale and its importance.
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